Elementary school science the masses ignore. The truth is in our faces. We refuse to believe our own eyes.

For example:

How does our sun appear to dramatically change in size as it rises and falls, if it is millions of miles away? It should remain relatively unchanged no matter if it is at the horizon or high noon. Our sun and moon are much closer than we have been taught.

Earth's atmosphere is what is distorting the light coming from the sun. When the sun is setting or rising its light travels through a much greater distance of air (which is proximate to an observer). This is true for both spherical and flat Earth theories.

Because the atmosphere contains a large amount of water vapor sometimes visual phenomena mimic what we see when it passes through liquid water; sun dogs for example. Light is also reflected off of water vapor; bright white clouds, and this can produce 'God light', when rays of light spread out from between cloud layers. When the rays are traced upwards to a focal point it can look like the sun is proximate but it is only the reflected light source.